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Memorable, crazy movie

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

OMG this is stunning to watch! You are transported immediately into an era of lavish furnishings, overstuffed drawing rooms and gorgeous, rustling taffetas. The interior house shots are lit and filmed with a disturbing gloominess. The camera work is excellent.However. The plot and execution are tedious. One or two shock revelations and a roaming leopard is the drama total. The slim plot about a cunning bachelor who marries three times for mortgage payments is padded out more than an over-stuffed footstool. Jeremy Brett nearly falls into hysteria but reins in his acting, which given a coherent script could have been a legendary performanceGiven the lavish production, it's frustrating to not see a perfect match with the script.

One can only assume that the producers of Granada's overall fantastic series had become emboldened by its success and reputation, and had decided to show off by the time they came to make this and some of the other feature length stories. Justified though they may be for presuming that they had possibly made the definitive films of Conan Doyle's work, they clearly didn't recognise that Brett is mainly responsible for bringing the mythology so vividly to life. That can be the only explanation for totally illogical sequencing, disorienting camera-work and the altogether odd atmosphere. If they were trying to reflect Holmes state of mind at the time then they went way over the top. How the viewer is expected to accept that Holmes could solve this case while being as confused as they are in trying to figure out just what is happening on screen and in what sequence we are seeing it. Would have been better if this had resolved itself or been shown to be contextually relevant. But by the end it becomes apparent it was just for its own sake.The final scene between Holmes and Lestrade in The Six Napoleons evokes more pathos, conveys more emotion and reveals more surprises while at the same time delivering the familiar more satisfyingly than in the entire duration of this film.Nevertheless, Brett and Hardwicke are great. Always.

Asks Watson. Unfortunately not at all. This feature length production concocts a Holmes who is not at all himself. Holmes, the archetypal steely-nerved arch-rationalist here, in the hands of this writer and director, instead becomes prey to nightmares and tortured by flashbacks and phantasms. Will he be forced to seek counselling we wonder? The writer stopped just short of this but he the director otherwise knew no bounds. Pointless over-elaboration - and a lack of point. If it's allusive they use it. Such things often are the hallmark of a lesser talent given too many resources. Surprising to find this in the work of a writer and a director with long track records. But what a shame that this fine cast (inc guests Simon Williams and Anna Calder-Marshal), these sumptuous interiors and costumes,these atmospheric exteriors were not put to better use.Its always good to watch the Brett/Hardwicke combo in their struggles against criminality and injustice. Here though they are pitted against criminally bad writing and directionA ray of hope. Re-editing might yet rescue it.

*Spoilers* Based loosely off of "The Nobel Bachelor" and "The Veiled Lodger", The Eligible Bachelor comes off as an extremely weird movie. At some points it is uncomfortable watching it. The screenplay, mixing together two quite unlikely stories, is, for the most part, clever and entertaining, but there were several things that were unnecessary. The dream sequence was dumb and came off as some random thing they wanted to put in the film. Holmes needed to stop whining about Moriarty being dead. Lord St. Simon leaving his second wife to rot in a pit did not seem to fit well with the rest of the film. Maybe if we hadn't had those obnoxious nightmares, her situation would have been more shocking. The acting is good. The confrontation between Hettie and St. Simon in the condemned castle is powerful, and the violence is especially grisly. Paris Jefferson and Simon Williams are the standout performances. About a 6.5 out 10.